Friday Fictioneers – Spectre

I don’t exist. The track unravels empty across the moor – the physical world contains no first person singular. Though my spirit presses insistently on the arches of my eye socket, like a hawk trying to escape a cage, really the thing’s a ghost.

Fingers flutter and reach for yours. “Give me a hug,” I say.

Even if the outside domain has no room for an “I”, there is a “you”. I know that because I can see you. And through “we”, for a time, I can feel myself in the world.

Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fieldsto write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here.

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It’s a very big ask to explain human self-awareness in 100 words. You’ve written a metaphor for the way we all sometimes experience the ‘ghost in the machine’. I love the description ‘my spirit presses insistently on the arches of my eye socket, like a hawk trying to escape a cage’. The resolution of your unspoken question is good, too, that although there is no ‘I’, there is a ‘you’, and a ‘we’. What a comfort that is!

Neil, this feels like it’s multi-dimensional, like the essence of wind and clouds, like spirits passing into the next realm, emotions between people before moving on. And yet phrases like: “give me a hug” ground it and perhaps the self too? Is it through the “we” that “me” exists? Definitely thought-provoking.

I see a lot of different interpretations in the comments – you’ve sparked people’s interest! At first I thought he was a ghost, but the end lines made me think he’s alive but feeling unmoored from the world, from reality, and only comes back to it through his connection with the other half of his “we”.

Like other commenters, I didn’t get it, but upon reading their thoughts, I have found it interesting. I love the view of how we are connected. To take it further, the corporate application: as countries, UK, USA, Australia, and other countries are all connected, as are Kenya, Nigeria, Brazil, Mexico, India, Japan, etc. Globally, there is a “we” and a “you”.

I felt that this person has already died. The spirit just being released. Though now the physical world does not exist as such, he still feels “connected” to it through the people who love him.
Leaves a lot for interpretation. Good one.